Christmas Cards

 The longer one is out of sight, the fewer Christmas cards they will receive.  So it is said of monks in a monastery.  If you are not in the visual life of a person, they forget about you.  I think there is truth in this.  Recently dead people will receive more cards than a person holed  up "too" long in a remote monastery.  This will be my third Christmas here in the monastery.  Fewer people are actually sending out mailed Christmas cards.  So the mail is lighter.  Some do it electronically.  It is a season in which people are pressed for time.  The time is not so much used for meditating or reviewing their life in this season.  They are caught up in the frenzy of the culture.  But monks are not supposed to be bothered by the cobwebs in their mail box.  Why?  The monk is trying to be forgotten, more insignificant and ignored.  Like someone born in a stable who could not even get a room reservation in the cozy Inn of a small village.  Maybe shepherds will come visit me?